Hi Rob-

 

I'd love to participate in the development of an ATC program. However, I offer no programming knowledge and very little money....other than that, I'd like to help

 

All joking aside, XPX could have a wonderful future with this type of add on. I have often wondered how much money is required to get an ATC or AI generator built from the ground up.

 

Good luck.

 

Mike

Regarding the use of FSUIPC, my understanding is that it is slower than SimConnect but I could have been misinformed about that.

 

You could be right, I'm going to be doing some timing tests with FSUIPC/WideFS to get an idea if it's acceptable or not ... my hunch is FSUIPC/WideFS should be fast enough for ATC duty -- it's the real time calculations that need to happen to effectively emulate a good air traffic controller, A LOT of logic and evaluation needs to happen especially around very busy airports.

 

I'd love to participate in the development of an ATC program. However, I offer no programming knowledge and very little money....other than that, I'd like to help

 

Programming side is not a problem, getting more familiar with ATC is needed (my weakness) ... if you have that ATC knowledge we should talk - PM. What makes this project attractive is that it doesn't need money investment up front (vs. doing scenery that would require considerable up front investments to acquire imagery sources). Doing this "Full Time" would be nice but initially not possible, but that's a big leap and would need to get "seasoned" first to see how the chips fall or not. A lot of developers come and go which is often a sign of not enough money to be made. But as with many 3rd party products, they often start as a "hobby" and evolve.

 

As to a second computer...., if you keep the specs for a second pc low, most people would be able to find one, especially a cheap laptop.

 

Agree and that would be the case.

 

If you decide to go ahead, I'd be more than willing to be part of the test team.

 

Duly noted.

 

Getting some great feedback, appreciate all the responses! Keep'em coming.

It continues to amaze me that a better ATC has not come to market, or better yet been included in any flight sim release since subLogic's Flight Assignment ATP in the early '90s. Flight Assignment ATP did include great point to point ATC, realistic speed restrictions, etc. It was also possible to change routing when enroute. I believe you could even open an IFR flight plan when enroute, such as if conditions changed from VFR to IFR. That was 20 years ago.

I think a plus could be the ability to control AI Traffic so they don’t crash into obstacles or mountains when departing or approaching certain airports.

 

As you know current AI flight plans don’t have waypoints, son we are stuck with only departure and destination, current ATC does not take that into account, thus them planes often crash.

 

Yes, but what I'm not sure about is can AI plans be converted to a pseudo "networked" user/pilot and then control that giving full access to waypoints, holding patterns, etc. etc. My product would also need to account for new AI routes and convert on the fly to pseudo "networked" user/pilot. Lots of proof of concept coding will need to happen first before a full design process can start.

 

If WideFS/FSUIPC turns out to be not enough or too slow, then I'd have to produce my own IPC (trying to avoid that, but I know a source that might be able to help me out there).